Home-service Program for Older Negro Disciples Initiated

“The growing number of elderly persons in Disciples congregations and their desire to live independently posed seemingly intractable problems… Furthermore, the failure of NBA to make some provision for the elderly Black Disciples, and for that matter, for Black children, was causing increasing embarrassment in a society where the legal structures of segregation and discrimination were collapsing.”

“In-home care was used as the model for NBA’s first ministry to Black Disciples. The Disciples’ Crusade for a Christian World of the 1950s sought to raise sufficient capital from Black churches to establish Homes for Black children and older persons… In 1961, the Home-service Program for Older Negro Disciples was initiated, using the Crusade funds as an endowment. Jointly administered by the National Christian Missionary Convention and NBA, the program worked through local Black pastors to survey the need for such assistance and to carry out local supervision of the care. Annie B. Green, a St. Louis minister’s widow who had recently suffered a diabetic stroke, received the first monthly grants. Soon, three widows in Black Disciple congregations were receiving regular assistance in independent living.” (Inasmuch, p113-14.)

Later, the NBA-National Convocation Task Force would “set the stage for responding more pointedly to Black voices. Recommendations from that task force eventually led to…the position of Director of Social Services, the opening of Hasina House in Pittsburgh, and the management of Hollybrook Homes in Jacksonville, FL.” (Inasmuch, p129.)